The present disclosure relates generally to medical devices, and more specifically to ablation catheters including bond joints formed to have improved strength and resistance to failure during use. In many embodiments an expanded bond-joint length and area and gap filling are used to increase the strength of the bond joint while decreasing relative variability. The bond joint length area is increased in a controlled manner so as to increase the overall strength of the bond joint by shifting the failure mode from the bond joint to a stronger area of the ablation catheter, such as the catheter shaft. Related methods of manufacturing such ablation catheters (or other medical devices including a bond joint) are also disclosed and described herein.